


Anything goes

by sableflynn



Category: Original Work
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Broken Bones, Forced Alcohol Use, Forced To Hurt Friend, Forcibly Stripped, Gen, Knives, Non-Consensual Touching, Sadistic Card Game, Torture, Whump, bound and gagged
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:48:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22744285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sableflynn/pseuds/sableflynn
Summary: Annaliese competes against Volkan, with Kailo as the prize. Inspired by the sadistic card game: https://card-games-and-pain.tumblr.com/post/190531498431/sadistic-card-game
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	1. Chapter 1

“Let me make sure I’m understanding this correctly,” Annaliese said, her voice even, measured. “You want me to...play a card game with you?” 

Volkan smiled, shuffling a deck of cards. “Something like that. We’re trialing a new game for the casino. Only for the most elite members, of course.” He was completely at ease, leaning back in his seat, one leg crossed over his knee. "Kailo there just happened to be in the right place at the right time and I just thought he'd be the perfect candidate for our first run-through." 

Anna forced herself to continue looking into Volkan's eyes and not turn to look to where she knew Kailo was behind her, bound on his knees, gagged, blindfolded, cotton shoved in his ears. Strung up on display like a fucking _prize_. She knew how this worked. Volkan was going to try to get into her mind, to throw her off balance and watch her squirm. She refused to give him the satisfaction. She would do what she needed to do until she could get Kailo out of there. 

She sat on the couch across from Volkan, the low coffee table between them. “Tell me how this ‘game’ works.”

His grin broadened as he leaned forward in his seat. “It’s simple. Draw a card from the deck and do whatever it says.” He pulled a card out at random and flipped it over. _Burn them_ , written in an elegantly scripted hand. Anna fought back a shudder, her eyes flicking quickly in Kailo’s direction before returning to Volkan. 

“We’re going to take turns picking cards,” Volkan continued, smoothly shuffling the card back into the deck. “If you reach eleven cards, you can take him home with you. If you pass on a single card, you forfeit the game, and he belongs to me.” 

_Bullshit_ , she wanted to say. _He will never belong to you._ But the words _burn them_ still flashed in her mind, and she couldn’t help but wonder how much of Kailo would be left by the time they got through twenty-one cards. “This will kill him,” she said, keeping her tone neutral even as her mind already raced ahead in desperate contemplation of every possible outcome. “You’re going to make me torture him with you, and then he’ll die before either of us can win.”

“Oh don’t worry, none of these cards will _kill_ him.” Volkan paused to consider for a moment. “Probably. We’re still working out some of the kinks with this game.” 

She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. “But I’ll tell you what, if you _really_ can’t bring yourself to hurt him, I think we could work out a different arrangement…” His eyes shined with a poisonous intrigue. “I can untie him right now and put you in his place. Let him be the one to play this game for _your_ freedom.” He shrugged. “If you really care about protecting him from all that pain, of course.” 

She wanted to do it. So, so badly. She looked over at where Kailo knelt, his shoulders already trembling from fear and exhaustion, and she wanted to place herself between him and that pain and not allow any of it to touch him. Her heart ached with the desire to _protect_ him. 

But underneath those emotions, she knew with a cold certainty that he just wouldn’t be able to win this game. He wouldn’t be able to bring himself to hurt her and he would fall into whatever fucked-up mind games Volkan wanted to play. The only way they were both walking out of there was if she played the game and won. 

If that made her heartless, then so be it. She would do whatever it took to get them out of there and hate herself for it later.

Taking one last look at Kailo, she turned back to face Volkan. “I’ll play your game.”

He nodded. “I knew you were a stone-cold bitch.” Setting the deck of cards on the table between them, he poured himself a finger of amber liquor and leaned back once again. “Draw your first card, then.” 

Steeling herself, Anna flipped over the first card. “Crush their finger,” she read. _So this is how it starts._ Fine. She could do this. 

Volkan motioned towards a suitcase that sat next to the table. “There are some tools in there that might help you,” he said, watching her with bright eyes. Swallowing down her fear at his casual use of the word _tools_ , she crouched to open the suitcase.

It was full of implements of torture. A hammer. Several knives of varying length and sharpness. A fucking _blowtorch_. Anna’s gaze shifted between the weapons and Volkan, seated on the couch a few feet away. He held his drink, leaning back into the seat, the top few buttons of his shirt undone. He looked so _vulnerable_. Her eyes lingered on the knives, considering…

Volkan saw where she was looking and smiled. “You can try, if you want,” he said, “but you won’t win. And then you’ll forfeit the game.” He was so close and she could end it all right here…but she knew he was right. She was not physically strong, and the only way she could take him in a fight would be if she got the drop on him, caught him off guard. That wasn’t going to happen here, where everything was meticulously under his control.

So she chose the smallest hammer she could find and approached Kailo. His hands were stretched above his head, held with cuffs that could easily be detached and reattached. She lightly touched one hand and he immediately flinched, trying to scramble away on his knees but held in place by the cuffs. Before he could move too much, before her heart could catch up with what she was doing, she pulled one hand down and laid it flat on the ground. Smashed the hammer down on his little finger. 

His scream of pain tore through her, even muffled by the gag. She pushed down her anguish and quickly reattached his wrist to the cuff above him, careful not to jostle the crushed finger further. _It’s just one finger. I’m fine. He’s fine._

_One card down, twenty more to go._

“Not bad,” Volkan said as she returned to her seat. She refused to look at him as he drew his first card. “Ooh, _kick them_ , that’s always fun.” He rolled the single die—with ten sides, because of _course_ he wouldn’t be content with just six—and landed a two. He shrugged at that. “Guess I’ll have to make them count.”

He circled Kailo slowly, for the moment just seeming to admire him. Anna forced herself to watch as Volkan delivered the first vicious kick to Kailo’s side, nearly sending him sprawling if not for the chains holding him up. The second kick drove into his stomach, and Kailo doubled over, chest heaving with dry sobs as he struggled to breath through the gag. 

Volkan returned to his seat, and Anna flipped over the next card before he could make another self-aggrandizing comment. _Punch them._ Maybe this would be ok. She wasn’t very good at throwing a punch, anyway. She rolled the die, and let out a soft sigh of relief when she landed a three.

Volkan frowned at that. “You know, we’ve been debating how many dice we should use in the game. It seems like we’re getting awfully low numbers with just one die.” Anna resisted asking who exactly _we_ included. There would be time later to track down every single person involved with this casino and completely _ruin_ them. 

For now, she crouched next to Kailo, wondering where would be the least painful place to punch him. Curling her hand into a fist, she struck his shoulder with as gentle a blow as she could manage. Kailo gave a sharp intake of breath, flinched away from the punch, but otherwise seemed more confused than hurt. 

Volkan scoffed from behind her. “Oh come on, you know that doesn’t count. It has to be a _real_ punch.”

Anna looked back over her shoulder to fix him with an icy stare. “I don’t think you’re the most impartial judge,” she said.

She expected a rebuttal, but Volkan nodded, looking thoughtful. “You have a point. Maybe next time we’ll have to get a neutral third party.” He waved a hand at her. “Just do it, then. I’ll just have to make up for it with my next card.” 

Anna quickly gave two more soft punches, avoiding the areas Volkan had kicked, or anything that would upset the finger she had broken. She returned to the table, tensed with nervous anticipation of how Volkan would “make up for it.”

He still looked less than pleased with her attempts at punching, but his face brightened as he pulled the next card. “Now _that’s_ more like it.” He set the card down and immediately moved to browse the suitcase of tools, and her gaze fell on the words: _Carve your name into their arm._ She swallowed. Volkan was already approaching Kailo with a long knife, sharp edge glinting in the light. 

Volkan took his time, tracing the flat of the knife along Kailo’s arm with agonizing slowness. Running it along Kailo’s fingers, just to see him flinch and cry as it brushed his mangled pinky. Finally, he pressed the tip into Kailo’s arm and, with an almost reverent care, began to carve the first letter. 

“You guys know a healer, right?” Fuck, he was trying to make small talk while he was mutilating her friend. “I wouldn’t worry about this. She should be able to clean it up if you get there fast enough.” Volkan smeared away the blood and continued with the next letters. Kailo was sobbing, trying to pull his arm away, but there was nowhere to go. “If you win, I mean. If _I_ win,” and at that he paused to admire his work, “it’ll be the first beautiful mark on my new plaything.” 

_That’s not going to happen,_ she thought, but her face paled as she read her next card. _Break their arm._ She stood before him, looking between both arms. One already dripped with blood, the name _VOLKAN_ clearly visible in an oozing red. Was it better to break that arm, keep the pain concentrated to one side? Or would that be too much for Kailo? God, why was she trying to rationalize _anything_ about this when it was the most senseless thing she had ever done? Before she could stop herself, she moved to his uninjured arm and snapped it in a clean break. His muffled scream echoed around the room, and she crushed down the thought _he’s screaming because of me_ before it could fully form. 

“So is he left-handed or right-handed?” Volkan asked as she returned. “Though I suppose it doesn’t matter at this point— _ah_.” He had drawn his next card. “Looks like I get to try another knife.” Setting the card down— _cut them_ —he rolled an eight. _Fuck_. 

This time, Volkan dispensed with any dramatics and immediately laid his first cut along Kailo’s collarbone. The second he sliced under the name he had carved, underlining it. A third along the other arm, gripping the broken limb with tight fingers. Anna watched and counted each cut, not blinking as Kailo screamed and cried, because if he had to suffer through this then the very least she could do was to not turn away like a coward. 

At last Volkan finished, wiping the bloody knife on Kailo’s shirt. He turned back to her with a grin. “He looks good like that, doesn’t he?” Kailo’s head was bowed, his shoulders heaving as he focused on breathing. Blood ran down his arms, and the cuts were shallow and would probably stop bleeding soon, but there were _so many_ and Anna couldn’t shake the sudden fear that they would need to hurry the rest of this game if Kailo was going to get out of here alive. She quickly flipped over the next card. 

_Make them scream_. Volkan read it and laughed. “That shouldn’t take much with him.” She hated herself for having the same thought. But Kailo was terrified, and he had already screamed so much, and maybe she could get through this card without having to _really_ hurt him.

She looked at him for a minute, then grabbed his hair and wrenched his head back, hoping to startle him into screaming. He gasped and whimpered through the gag. Letting go, she took his broken arm, trembling fingers digging into the slice Volkan had left there. Kailo let out a whine, shoulders hitching. 

She was starting to feel desperate. At least with the other cards she knew exactly what she had to do and had no choice, but this, _this_ , everything she did to him was of her own choosing, and it couldn’t end until she got that reaction out of him. “Come on, Kailo,” she muttered, her movements becoming more frantic as he still refused to scream. “Please, just scream, I need you to scream, _please_ , Kailo…”

“Oh, that’s not how you say it,” Volkan commented. She looked over at him, caught off-guard. He was leaning forward, watching her with fascination. “You don’t tell them you _need_ anything from them, and you certainly never say _please_. When you’ve got someone bound and gagged in front of you like that, completely at your mercy, you just tell them exactly what you want: _Scream for me._ ” 

Her stomach churned at the casual cruelty of it, how comfortable he was with the thousands of different ways to completely shatter a person. All at once everything they had already done rushed back to her, threatening to crush her. They had barely begun and Kailo was already bleeding, sobbing, beaten because of _her_ , and there was no way she could get through whatever number of mindlessly evil cards still awaited her—

 _No. I need to finish this._ She took a slow breath. _If I lose, then he’s gone, and everything he already went through will have been for nothing._ Hands trembling, she undid the cuff holding his broken hand. _I just need to make him scream._ She brought the hand down, laid it flat against the ground once again. _I’m so sorry, Kailo._ She brought her boot down on his hand. 

He screamed through the gag, knife wounds bleeding anew as he thrashed against her. She let out the breath she had been holding and reattached his hand to the cuff. Schooled her expression before turning to face Volkan again. 

“Your turn.” Her voice was emotionless.

Volkan let out a low whistle. “That was impressive. Brutal, efficient.” He looked at her with an admiration that made her want to vomit. “You know, you could really be something amazing if you got over yourself and put those skills to use.”

She sat back on the couch, refusing to allow herself to process what he had said. That had been card number seven. They were a third through the game. She clenched her fists in her lap, and waited for the next card. 


	2. Chapter 2

At some unseen signal from Volkan, a servant entered and laid down a platter of fruits and cheese and refilled their drinks, like this was some sort of fucking cocktail party. 

“This is taking so much longer than I expected,” Volkan said, choosing a strawberry from the platter and popping it in his mouth. “Not that I’m complaining, of course. He looks amazing, and we’re barely a third through.” 

Anna said nothing. Across from them, Kailo knelt on the floor, shaking with muffled sobs through the gag, cloth wrapped around his eyes and stuffed in his ears. She realized she was clenching her fists, nails digging into her palms. She forced herself to relax them, let out a slow breath. _Don’t let him see how this is getting to you._

He saw. “You should have a drink, Anna,” he said, motioning towards her untouched glass of liquor. “It might take the edge off, make the rest of this easier for you.” 

Anna refused to look directly at him. “No.”

“You sure?” Even out of the corner of her eye, she could see his self-satisfied smirk. “You might even end up enjoying this, if you let yourself relax a little.”

Kailo was trembling, weakening before her. The sooner they got through this, the sooner she could take him home and get him help. “Just play your next card.”

Helping himself to another piece of fruit, Volkan pulled the next card, and his eyes lit up. “Oh, _fuck_ yes.” He dropped the card on the table, and Anna read the elegant script: _Strip them naked._

“ _Don’t._ ” The word slipped out before she could stop herself, and she wanted to reach out and pull it back in, but Volkan had already frozen and was turning back to her, so slowly. 

His eyes on her were poisonous. “Are you forfeiting the game?”

“No.” Her voice was a whisper.

He took a step closer. “You were okay with everything we did before, but this is where you draw the line?”

“No.”

“No, what?” He stepped closer.

“I wasn’t okay with any of it.” 

“But you let it happen.” Another step, and he was in front of her.

She swallowed. “Just...just do it.”

He smiled, tilted his head, then took her chin in one hand. She almost wrenched her head away, but she held still. _How can I flinch from this when Kailo is going to go through so much worse—has already gone through so much worse?_

“Do what, Anna?” Volkan asked, his grip on her chin deceptively gentle.

 _He’s going to make me say it._ “Finish your card.”

The grip on her chin tightened infinitesimally “Be more specific, Anna.”

She looked him in the eye. “Strip him.”

At once the hand on her chin was gone, and Volkan was rummaging through the tool box. “If you insist,” he said, pulling a small knife from the box.

“If you cut him with that, you forfeit the game,” she said in a fit of desperation. “The card doesn’t say to cut.” It was a weak attempt to take back the control she had lost.

Volkan hummed in agreement. “I guess I’ll have to be careful, then.” He stood behind Kailo, hand trailing gently down the side of his face, and then began to undo the gag. “I’ll take this out for now. I want to hear him beg.” 

As soon as the gag was off Kailo began to cough, his body shaking with the force of it. Then he started begging, and Anna felt her heart shatter. “Please, _please,_ please stop—” He broke off into another fit of coughing that turned into a shuddering sob.

Volkan _laughed._ “Wow, I haven’t even done anything to him yet and he’s terrified.” He toyed idly with Kailo’s curls. Anna gripped the edges of her seat with white knuckles to stop herself from flying at him in a rage. _What the fuck do you mean you haven’t even done anything to him yet?_

True to his word, Volkan was careful with the knife as he began slicing Kailo’s clothes away. Kailo flinched every time the knife cut into the cloth, but Volkan had perfect control and was soon pulling the remnants of the shirt from his body. He ran a hand over Kailo’s now-bare chest, and Anna wondered with dread just how much more _intimate_ these cards would get. 

Volkan pulled the pants off and Kailo was now fully stripped before them. Anna averted her eyes, then realized that was fucking _pointless_ when Volkan was still crouching right over Kailo and running a thumb over his cheek. Kailo jerked away from the touch, curling his legs into himself in an attempt to keep some sort of dignity. “D-don’t touch me,” he whispered, his voice wavering, and then it broke as he continued, “please, please don’t…” His breaths were short, sharp. 

“Your turn,” Volkan said as he turned back to her with a supremely satisfied smile, but she was already pulling the next card, desperate to get through this as quickly as possible. _Play with their hair._ She held onto the deep relief that this wouldn’t be something painful, and crushed down the unease at just how this would feel to Kailo immediately after being stripped naked. She rolled the die and landed a three. 

“Three minutes,” Volkan said, pulling an ornate watch from his pocket. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep time for you.”

 _Like hell do I trust you to be honest about that,_ she thought as she made her way to stand behind Kailo. Beginning the countdown in her mind, she placed her hands as gently as she could in Kailo’s hair. He immediately jerked away with a cry, a soft whispered _please don’t._ Hating herself for it, Anna placed her hands on his hair again and began running fingers through his curls. _One eighty, one seventy-nine, one seventy-eight, one-seventy-seven…_

As the seconds ticked by, Kailo’s sobs quieted, and he began to lean into the touch. Anna wasn’t sure that was any better. _Ninety-two, ninety-one, ninety, eighty-nine…_ Her eyes flicked up to see Volkan watching with a deep fascination, occasionally glancing at his watch. _Forty-five, forty-four, forty-three…_ Kailo’s breaths were softer, and he almost seemed relaxed. _Three, two, one—_

“Stop.” Volkan startled her with his punctuality; she’d been _so sure_ he would try to drag it out. He smirked at her confusion. “What, did you think I’d try to cheat you?” Drawing his next card, he added, “Why would I need to cheat, when you’ve been playing so well?” 

Anna sat as Volkan read his card. “ _Give them alcohol_.” He briefly considered the bottle sitting at the table with them, then got up to search the bar. “I’m not wasting my good liquor on this,” he said. 

While Volkan searched, Anna allowed herself a moment to consider Kailo. With the gag out, his breathing was much louder, even as he had managed to contain his sobs. He was stripped naked. Covered in cuts and bruises. One arm broken, the other carved with Volkan’s name. _And we’re just about halfway through._ She wondered if he could make it through the rest of the game. If _she_ could make it through.

“Here we go.” Volkan returned with a bottle of clear liquor. Without further ceremony, he crouched next to Kailo, unscrewing the lid and pressing the bottle to his mouth. 

Kailo jerked his head away. “Please don’t—I don’t want—” Rolling his eyes, Volkan snarled a hand in Kailo’s hair and jerked his head back, forcing the bottle once again to his mouth. The liquor splashed down his body and Kailo cried out as it washed over his cuts. His cries turned to coughing and choking as Volkan continued forcing the drink on him, pouring the liquor until Kailo’s throat bobbed with a swallow. Anna could smell the alcohol from where she sat. 

As Volkan returned to his seat, Anna drew her next card. _Stroke their thigh._ She couldn’t help but frown at that. _How much further will these cards go?_

Volkan glanced over at the card, scoffing as he read it. “You’re worried about _that?_ Would you rather slice him open some more?” 

“I—no,” Anna said, cursing herself for getting so easily flustered by a simple card. “But don’t play coy. You _know_ how this will feel to him after what you did—”

“After what _we_ did, Anna.” He reached across the table and rolled the die for her. “Six minutes. Do it, or I’ll take him home and do much worse.” 

Hating how easily Volkan got to her, hating every flicker of weakness she had ever shown him, Anna knelt next to Kailo and laid a careful hand on his thigh. He gasped and flinched away, and once again, Anna ignored his protests and continued to touch him. 

_I’m not hurting him. I’m not hurting him. I’m not hurting him._ She tried to convince herself that it was true, tried to block out his sobs and quiet pleading as her hand continued to move almost of its own accord. His skin was warm under her palm, his thigh slick with the liquor that had spilled over him. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him, even though she owed him at least that much. She stared straight ahead, and moved her hand mechanically up and down his thigh, and counted the seconds in her even breaths.

The very second her time was up, she withdrew her hand as if it were on a burning stove, and Volkan laughed, pulling his next card. His eyes gleamed as he read it. “Ooh, _time magic._ That means I get to go through all the cards we’ve played so far and choose one to repeat.” He scooped up both their cards and began rifling through them. “I do love a good encore.” 

_Of course he’s got to make a big show of this,_ Anna thought, but she couldn’t deny the growing dread she felt as he explored his options. “Let’s see...I could break his other arm, slice him up some more— _ah._ ” He pulled out one card with relish. “ _Make them scream._ I don’t think you fully appreciated this card when you had it, Anna.” 

“Just do it already, then,” Anna snapped, her entire body tense as she waited to see how he was going to drag this one out. Volkan sauntered over to Kailo, completely at ease, circling around him a few times. Eyeing him. Finally, he paused in front of him, and laid a gentle finger on Kailo’s lips. A clear message: _be quiet._ Kailo was already nodding.

Anna dug her nails into the leather of the couch, and waited, and said nothing. 

She watched as Volkan toyed with Kailo, testing limits, finding every tiny way to hurt him. He started small— _if any of this can be considered small,_ Anna thought bitterly—jostling old injuries, digging fingers into bloody wounds, twisting already-broken bones. Kailo was biting his lip in an attempt to contain his cries. 

Volkan was taking his time. _I took my time with it, too._ She had gone slowly in hopes of finishing the card without hurting Kailo too badly; Volkan was enjoying the build-up and anticipation of hurting Kailo in as many small ways as he could. Not that that distinction would make any difference to Kailo. _All he knows is that he’s being hurt again, and again, and again._

Anna nearly jumped when Kailo screamed, and her eyes snapped up to find the knife stabbed clean through his hand. And then Kailo’s scream quieted, and he started talking through his sobs: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, please stop—”

Volkan looked _thrilled._ “Seriously? Is he always like this?” he asked Anna with a broad grin. “It’s like he was made to be someone’s plaything.” Anna bit her tongue and didn’t rise to the bait, but inside she _burned._ Every fiber of her being longed to destroy this man and everything he stood for and to tear his fucking empire to the ground. 

She drew her next card.

 _Rest._ For a moment Anna blinked at the card, processing. What was the catch? She picked up the die and rolled a five.

“Five minutes’ rest,” she told Volkan. It seemed too good to be true.

He nodded, but made no move to step away. Instead, he began to circle around Kailo once again, studying him as one would a fascinating art exhibit. Kailo was tense, jumpy, twisting in his bonds as if trying to find where the pain would come from next. 

“You’re not—” Anna began, but Volkan cut her off.

“I’m not _touching_ him. I’m just looking.” He crouched low, staring Kailo in the face. “God, you’re so _fussy_ about all this.” 

_This isn’t a rest,_ Anna thought. _This is just...putting off the inevitable._ They still had eight more cards to get through before this was over. And Kailo had no way of knowing even that—for all he knew, this wouldn’t end until he was killed. He was hyper-alert even with the blindfold on his eyes and cotton in his ears, flinching every time Volkan moved, as if he could sense the shifts in the air. Volkan drank in all his reactions with a satisfied smile.

The minutes slowly ticked by. Volkan continued his circling, admiring his ( _our,_ Anna reminded herself) work. Kailo trembled in the bonds, his head hanging low, curls damp with sweat. Anna watched them both, and waited for the rest to end. 


End file.
